Momondo Adds Flight Rating System

Online meta search engine Momondo reports the introduction of a rating system for flights that can identify the best flights available – considering both cost and convenience.

The new flight rating system helps consumers save time and money - not only the time spent on travel, but also the time spent finding the right flight to book, the company says.

"Metasearch engines like Momondo and Kayak have changed the landscape of travel, " Momondo says."They gather flight fares from hundreds of travel sites to make it easier for travelers to compare and find the cheapest fare. In many cases, however, the cheapest flight is not necessarily the best flight."

To illustrate Momondo cites a search for a flight from New York to Portland, Oregon. The cheapest flight found was on Southwest Airlines for $328: "It’s a good price. However, the flight makes a connection, so that the outbound duration is 10 hours 45 minutes and the homebound duration 7 hours 15 minutes – on average of 9 hours each way, 18 hours in total. "

To get past these cheap, but inconvenient long flights, Momondo is introducing the new rating technology, Momondo says. "By combining several factors into a single rating system, Momondo’s new technology can instantly spot the best flights available considering both price and time or cost and convenience."

“Flight search engines scan the web and present a massive amount of flight information in a long list for the traveler to trawl through in the hope of finding the right flight. Typically they also add some filtering options, but this isn’t very innovative. Our new rating technology turns raw information into knowledge and insight,” says Martin Lumbye, Partner at Momondo.

By activating the rating system on the search example for flights from New York to Portland, OR, the best flight found was actually $357 with an average one-way travel time of 5 hours 43 minutes, and a total round-trip travel time of 11 hours 25 minutes, a savings of 6 hours and 13 minutes, for just an extra $29, which is often less than what airlines charge to check one piece of luggage, Momondo said.

The new technology makes it possible for travelers to edit their search results, ensuring the best flights appear at the top of their list, Momondo says. Every flight is rated with a smiley and a score between 0 (bad) and 10 (very good) to help the user find the flight with the best balance between price and flight duration.